The award, part of the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, annually recognizes a medical school faculty physician who exemplifies the qualities of a caring and compassionate mentor in the teaching and advising of medical students.

Award criteria require that the candidate also possess the desirable personal qualities necessary to the practice of patient-centered medicine.

Van Durme received a plaque recognizing his nomination. He was selected through a process directed by the AAMC Organization of Student Representatives.

FSU med students Paola Dees and Kit Lu submitted a nomination essay to the AAMC outlining Van Durme’s worthiness.

Included were several student testimonials about Dr. Van Durme’s impact as a teacher and physician. The AAMC describes the award’s goal as an attempt to “emphasize and reinforce among medical school faculty and students the importance of humanistic qualities and the enhancement of the interactions between medical school faculty and students.’’

One student wrote of watching Dr. Van Durme at a clinic during a spring break medical outreach trip along the Texas-Mexico border.

“He took the time to explain to a mother for the first time that her son would never walk because of his congenital malformations.  But that is not what made the mother cry, because in her heart she already knew that,’’ the student wrote. “What prompted the cathartic tears was when he told her it was evident based on the cleanliness of the baby’s healing wounds and remarkable level of cognitive development that she was a loving and dedicated mother. … That’s all she needed to hear.  That is what medicine is all about.  I saw it for the first time that day.”

The national winner of the award, presented at the AAMC’s annual meeting, was Dr. Melissa Warfield, professor emeritus of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School.